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Thursday, April 19, 2012

I am blogging this evening from the comfort of my bed, sigh* I am so lazy...

I finished a commisioned card this evening that I want to share. Quite a bit of time went into the details and I had fun putting everything together. I am so lazy I am considering not discussing the details....

I cut the flowers with my silhouette, using a new flower set file I purchased last week. Did you know that you get a free $10 card with your machine to use on the online store? It's magic! After cutting them I panstakingly removed each one from the mat, it seemed like the mat was having a love affair with my paper choice and wouldn't let it go without some sort of a fight. I nked the adges with a dry black ink pad, dry so as not to get too much black on the edges. I then put some seed beads in the centres.

The background stamp, as well as the cameo are from a set I got from my dear friend Maria for my birthday this year. It's the first time i've played with them and I L.O.V.E the quality of these perfect little unmounted rubber stamps. Being the lazy blogger that I am tonight, I am not going to go back to my craft desk to check the brand... maybe in the morning?

Oh, and P.S, the 50 is because the lady recieving this card is turning 50 :) what a special birthday.

Monday, April 16, 2012

So, Bunting has been all the rage for a few months now. It has appeared everywhere, from birthday parties, to scrapbook pages to cards. I have made use of the famous bunting before, but never like this.

I guess I should own up to a new addition in my stash, a certain cutting machine which hubby approved with great gusto :) yes, it is true, I am the proud owner of a brand new Silhouette Cameo. There, I said it. A guilty purchase if there ever was one I must say, to spend so much money on one craft tool. Nevertheless it is a part of my crafting landscape and it shall be used with much vigour.

I have made quite a few creations with my lovely machine so far, the first of which was an Easter card, but I think we are way past Easter now and I'll show you another one instead.

For those of you that have a silhouette, you will know that this amazing machine has a program that is even better than the blade it cuts with :) The free images that come with it are versatile and easy to adjust to become completely different items.

I used the banner file that is part of the initial group of images that come with the machine. I used the ungroup function and then repositioned the elements so that they overlapped each other. I then welded them together to make a cohesive banner, and sent to the machine to cut!

I used a Kaiserkraft unmounted stamp for the sentiment and punched a few dots with my crop-a-dile out of some scrap pieces of paper and voila! quick card in the making! oh, and I raised the banners on foam squares :)

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I am not sure how many of you know how I fell in love with scrapbooking. It all started with a birthday gift... vouchers at a scrapbook store. The store's name was Scrapbook and Things, and the first time I walked in I was so overwhelmed by all the STUFF I saw. Well, that STUFF has become recognisable and useful tools and embellishments and beautiful scrapbook pages over the years.

I still shop at Scrapbook and Things to this day, and I am still inspired by the stunning layout notes that are sold there. I had the pleasure of spending part of the day at the store yesterday, scrapping and gabbing to my hearts content. Bless my sweet hubby's heart for his understanding of my need to get lost in paper! I haven't crafted in an environment like this in forever and I realised how much I've missed crafting with friends (old and new) around me.

I finished a layout this afternoon, based on the notes I purchased yesterday. I changed a few things to suite my own style and scrap subject and I love the end result!

I used ruler stencils to create the scallops and fancy edgings. Scissor work is always relaxing, it never hurts to get back to basics. The photo's are from the disposable camera that I bought to use on the day hubby and I went river rafting with GoVertical last December. I am amazed at the quality of the photo's from this little gem. I was also clever enough to ask the photo developers to place them on a disk so that I have not only the negatives, but electronic copies too.

I love the title, Paddle Power, it makes us sound so strong! teehee! The paddling in reality was a lot of work, but it was fun all the way.

I have some really neat distressing rub-ons in my stash, I used a grey one on my focal photo to highlight the group of people. The round candi to the left of the pic is compliments of a certain copperknob in the UK.

I was industrious enough to draw my own template for a set of oars and cut them out of cardstock. More scissor work, I was over the moon :) You can also see the foam that I raised my title on in this picture.

I love Letter stickers, they save much time. I used a set to spell out the rest of my title, Power. I also hand journaled on the photo of the river with my black Sharpie to document the name of the river and the month and year we had our river rafting experience.

Completing this page reminded me of how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful country, despite the flaws which drive us up the wall most days. We are blessed to be able to have so many wonderful experiences together, and most of all we are blessed to have each other to do all these things with. Thank you my lovey, for such a wonderful day together*

xoxo

For those of you in SA, the link to the Scrapbook and Things blog is in my sidebar. Take note of the awesome challenge that they have running at the moment. You could win an album to the value of R395.00, as well as gift vouchers to the store.

Friday, April 13, 2012

I know that it is a week gone by already since we all celebrated Easter, but better a late blog post than nothing? I actually made our Easter decor two weeks in advance, and though I have been squeezing in craft time it has been far and few between with the busy schedule I've been having. I sorely miss my online craft friends as well the hours I could spend at my craft table.

For our Easter table I made candle wraps, napkin holders and name place tags, I went with an orange and green theme.... purely because of the napkin holders...

I guess, I'll start the photgraphic proceedings with a picture of the entire set.

I got the idea for napkin holders online somewhere, though I changed the method of making them. I have taken photo's for a tutorial, but I will have to get to working on that in another post. Same goes for the candle wrappers and the name place tags.

Obviously the napkin holders are supposed to resemble carrots :) I used a lovely Angel Company rubber stamp that I got from my friend Birdie a while back for the Easter phrase.﻿

I used Gorgeous paper that I recieved from a certain Ace of a friend for the pattern on my candle bands, the Angel Company stamp, and my trusty scallop ruler and scissors! The blue check, although very washi tape looking, is actually ribbon!

Lastly, I repurposed a few big stationery clips for the name placings. A bit of riiboon here and a bit of paper there, add a few letters and hand writing and it was done!

There you have it! Although I made these for Easter, they were used more as display :) Hubby and I went to see my folks over the Easter weekend, we had quite a blast on the farm. It was exactly the relaxation we both needed. Missing everyone already and I can't wait till we can go again.

I've been feeling really inspired these last few days and I have finally got a weekend where I did not bring my work home with me. I think it will mean lots of play time at my table! and a lot more posts for this blog!